Hollywood star Sharon Stone says Hollywood was rife with misogyny when she entered the showbiz over two decades ago.
The 62-year-old actor said she was criticised for her appearance at a time when the #MeToo movement wasn't even in sight.
"When I started as a model and actress, the term 'f***able' was equated with workable and camera. At the beginning, you found that I was too masculine, athletic and muscular, so pretty unsexy. To be perceived differently, I had myself photographed half-naked for 'Playboy'," Stone told the German edition of Vogue magazine.
"It was a pretty misogynistic era 20 years ago. Mel Gibson, who is three years older than me, thought I was too old to star opposite him," she added.
Stone shot to fame after her turn as serial killer Catherine Tramell in 1992's "Basic Instinct", so much so that she landed on the "Sexiest Woman Alive" lists, something she doesn't take much pride in.
"It's crazy what you find so sexy. But men are probably into sexual offenders and predators who take what they feel like. At least that was the case in the 1990s."